“Just give it back, will you?”
“No way, Larry. These are mine now.”
The other members of the project group laughed as Danny took the only resources Larry had.
“How am I meant to do my part of the project now? When Mr MacDonald comes back I’ll have nothing to show him.” Larry was getting desperate.
“Not my problem, Lazza. You should have thought of that before you insulted me.”
“Yeah,” sneered Deepak. “Loser Larry!” “Lame Larry!” added Dean.
“Larry the loner!” said Darren.
“What did I say to insult you?” asked Larry.
“Lawrence, my friend, you insult me just by existing. Now shut up, you’re ruining my creative time.” Danny leaned back in his chair and started to eat a Mars Bar.
At the end of the lesson, all the project groups returned to class. Mr MacDonald stood at the front and glared at the students.
“I’ve decided to shake up the project groups,” he said. “One or two of them are not working as well as they should be. Larry, I want to you join Lenka, Louisa and LaShawn.”
Larry couldn’t believe his luck! He was finally going to get away from Danny and his idiotic henchmen.
The bell rang and the class started to gather their things together. “Danny!” Mr MacDonald shouted over the din of people leaving
the room. “Can I have a word, please?”
Danny sauntered to the front of the room. “What?”
“I know how you’ve been acting in the project group. This kind of bullying is unacceptable, so you’re going to do this project on your own. And you’re going to spend all your breaks, lunchtimes and half an hour after school working on it for the next week. And if your cronies don’t change their ways they’ll get the same treatment.”
Danny couldn’t believe it. “But that’s so unfair! I haven’t done anything.”
“Oh, spare me the fake innocence,” sighed Mr MacDonald. “Well, at least get Larry to warn the others!”
“They know how to act, and they know the school rules. If they won’t pay attention to those, they’re not going to listen to Larry, are they?”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What do you think of Danny’s actions?
- What do you think of the punishment dished out to him?
- Do people always get the punishment (or rewards) they deserve?
- How does it make you feel when you see people getting away with treating others badly?
- Have you ever tried to dish out some sort of justice in this kind of situation?
- Do you think there is an eternal justice?
This story is based on Luke 16:19-32. Read this passage to the group and compare Jesus’ story with this one. Discuss what Jesus might have been saying through his parable, encouraging the group to think about it in a new way.
